As the city of Morgan Hill wraps up its Community Conversations,
we can’t help but wonder why dissolving or, at least, suspend the
Redevelopment Agency wasn’t one of the solutions presented to
residents.
As the city of Morgan Hill wraps up its Community Conversations, we can’t help but wonder why dissolving or, at least, suspend the Redevelopment Agency wasn’t one of the solutions presented to residents.
Throughout the process, city leaders and staff presented solutions to the city’s budget crisis with silver bullets such as cutting the police force and raising taxes. The easiest, cleanest, but arguably most expensive solution, though, never appeared on any of the city’s hand-outs – suspending the RDA until our economic situation improves.
Currently, the city’s RDA siphons about $2.6 million away from the general fund, but adds roughly $23 million to the RDA’s budget annually. Those revenues fund the construction of projects such as the Aquatics Center, Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, the new Indoor Recreation Center, affordable housing, and other economic projects like downtown improvements. However, RDA dollars can only be used to build things, not pay to operate and maintain them and that is part of the problem.
Take the Aquatics Center and Community and Cultural center, for example. Though both are wonderful facilities for any community to possess, they are both slated to lose a combined $1 million this fiscal year. The city’s budget deficit is estimated at $1.5 million. You do the math.
Of course, if the city were to pull the plug, even temporarily, on the RDA, residents shouldn’t expect another $2.6 million because the RDA does pay about $1.3 million in city salaries. Essentially, the city would sacrifice about $23 million in restricted RDA funds for about $1.3 million in fund dollars, leaving a gap of about $200,000. But, at least, residents wouldn’t have to swallow another tax increase in over-taxed area or live with even fewer police on our streets. Let’s not forget our police force is roughly the same size as in late 1980s.
Ask city officials why we spent RDA dollars on swimming pools and a cultural center widely used by the city itself and Gavilan College and they’ll tell you, as they did during the Community Conversations, that the residents “demanded” it during a visioning process in the late ’90s. We wonder if that visioning process saw cutting cops and raising taxes in its crystal ball.
Considering the sweeping economic change that has occurred since the tech bubble burst roughly during the same time the city last asked people about the RDA, we’re betting local residents have a new “vision” now. So why didn’t the city ask them about it while spending more than $100,000 reaching out to its residents?
They really should, especially since the city plans to extend the RDA to 2038 at the tune of as much as $1.9 billion – a move the council can make without holding a public vote.
So, people of the Mushroom City, rather than waiting for a question that isn’t likely to come, we urge you to call the city council at 779-7271 and tell its members how you feel before it’s too late.
